Thiruvananthapuram: Mr Shashi Tharoor MP has lashed out at an English news channel for spreading what he called lies about the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar and said that the media need not take on the role of the judiciary and police.
“It is nothing but a ploy of the newly-launched channel to garner attention and increase their TRP rate,” he told reporters here on Tuesday.
The national channel had come out with a series of audio tapes on Monday evening saying that Sunanda Pushkar’s body was shifted from room number 307 to 345 at Hotel Leela, New Delhi, when she was found dead on January 17, 2014. The channel alleged that Mr Tharoor had not tried to wake up his wife despite entering her suite in the morning at the hotel. The channel head who anchored the news also alleged that the scene of her death and the body were tampered with before the police were called in to the hotel.
“Media shouldn’t become judges. Some media houses are not conducting the right journalism. A new channel here had committed a serious wrong recently to increase its TRP ratings,” said Mr Tharoor.
He said he had nothing to hide about Sunanda’s death, and that some people were trying to use a personal tragedy for their personal gains.
“The police investigation has been going on for the last three years on Sunanda Pushkar’s death and there has been no evidence against me. There are legal authorities to investigate the case and they should be allowed to do their duty. Media should give out news based on police reports. Unfortunately, they are acting as judges,” added Mr Tharoor.
But within minutes of his reaction, a reporter of the said channel alleged on air that he was manhandled by Mr Tharoor’s “goons.” Mr Tharoor, in his Facebook post, said that when he came out of his flat, he saw dozens of cameras and a cretin (stupid person) tried to interrupt his reaction.
“Tried to say a few words to them but kept being interrupted by a cretin seeking to make the news, not report it. Pathetic to see the depths to which some will sink to attract TRPs. A so-called journalist comes with an agenda to disrupt the rest of the media to get attention for his channel. Not interested in truth,” added Mr Tharoor.
